Abstract: Local energy communities (LECs) are viewed as key actors in the future clean energy system where groups of citizens collaborate to use renewable energy to serve their community’s energy needs. However, LECs need decision support and optimisation tools. In this talk I will describe some optimisation models to support LECs to decide where to locate Photovoltaic arrays, and how to understand uncertainty between renewable energy generation and electricity demand, with computational experiments based on empirical data from a university campus. I will also highlight some ongoing research of the EURO WISDOM Forum to uncover gender dimensions in traditional OR applications such as Disaster Management, Healthcare, and Transport.